Deathly Hallows Discussion

[DarkCabaret]

I agree with you Iggy!

SPOILER :

The epilogue was okay. I don't like how she ONLY focused on Harry's kids. I mean I want to know what happened to George ... did he continue the joke shop without Fred? What happened with Luna, the whole Weasley clan, the whole wizarding world! JKR just left it open as if to tempt us with another book we all know she isn't going to write! Also who the HELL was it that did magic later in life? I know it was said by JKR that someone would, but I never found out who! I think either it was quick or she just didn't say it.

[Nanaea]

Maybe it's because I'm hormonal, but I found the book quite emotionally engaging. As a matter of fact, I cried though darn near the whole thing. I haven't felt this sad about something coming to an end since Buffy. :sigh:

Thoughts:

SPOILER :

The isolation of the trio was, I felt, necessary. It forced them to explore their relationships to each other. Yes, I nearly kicked Ron when he left, but I knew he'd come back - and come back he did. Hermione swearing - there's something I never thought I'd read. I feel let down by Dumbledore. My faith in him has been completely shattered. I'm glad Harry could forgive him because I sure as hell can't. I'm totally disillusioned. The little bit of Lupin that we got, I didnt' like at all. I agree that Harry should have had at least some sort of reaction to the revelation that Snape was in love with Lily - revulsion, shock, something. I know he was emotionally numb at that point, and the whole thing about being a sacrificial lamb was overshadowing everything else, but c'mon! About the epilogue. The only thing I can reason why there wasn't more about everyone else is that these books are written limited third person. It's always been through Harry's senses that we've learned things. What Harry sees, what Harry hears, what Harry knows. Still, that's not much of an excuse for not wrapping up the rest of the character's stories. Oh, and the kids' names were just horrible!

[redsliver]

SPOILER :

I was talking with a girl I was working with and I came to these conclusions: Snape, Pettigrew and Lupin had to die, I didn't want them all to die (I liked Lupin and didn't see his death as being as important as the others) but they were the people closest to James and/or Lily. It was only right they went back to their friends. I'm a little pissed off Snape didn't walk into the woods with Harry, but otherwise it needed to happen. Fred, Tonks, and Moony were soldiers in a war and soldiers die, senselessly, there's a lesson in their deaths no matter how much it sucks. Hedwig was caught in the crossfire, her death was the most senseless but then her death was quite like the muggles that died for Death Eater's fun. In war the innocent are those who suffer most and saying a couple nameless muggles were killed by a supposed gas leak doesn't quite hit you the same way offing Hedwig does. Personally JK Rowling went a bit overboard, but I respect her greatly for offing those characters, particularly Snape and Fred. Although unlike the rest of you if Snape didn't die I'd have condemned the book as absolute trash.

[NightScribe]

SPOILER :

Personally JK Rowling went a bit overboard, but I respect her greatly for offing those characters, particularly Snape and Fred. Although unlike the rest of you if Snape didn't die I'd have condemned the book as absolute trash. Snape's death didn't bother me, I expected it. Reading between the lines I've believed all along he was "one of the good guys" but if he had been revealed to be the baddest of bad asses, or playing both sides, working for himself (as some had theorized), I would have been cool with that. I would have given her enormous kudos if one of the latter two had been the case, but having become accustomed to Rowling's black and white, no gray in between style, there were no surprises. This is, to me, the weakest book, and highly disappointing on more than one level. She showed such promise in HBP with some character development for Draco and Snape and a truly creepy and chills inducing chapter involving the Inferi. I was delighted with it and thought "here we go, she's branching out, the next one should be interesting." Not so. I now own a five pound door stop/paperweight.

[Nanaea]

I forgot something that I had wanted to say:

SPOILER :

It had to be Fred who died because no one would have cared if it had been that prat Percy. Even Charlie or Bill, I feel, wouldn't have had the same emotional impact as one of the twins. So yeah, it had to be someone everyone loves - and who better than one of the fun-loving Weasley twins? I was really worried, through the whole book, that Ron or Hermione would die. I kept dreading the moment when they finally acknowledged their feelings for each other because I was sure one of them would die soon afterward. As for Lupin and Tonks a part of me knew long before I picked up the book that one of them would die, I just never dreamed it would be both.

[polywolly]

Okay, here goes...

SPOILER :

I knew there would be death.  It is war, after all.  Still, I don't think I was quite prepared for what I found.  Hedwig?!  Oh, dear.  I knew that didn't bode well.  Then Mad Eye?  I was like, "Let me get to page 100 before you start making me weep!"  But really, I held myself together.  I was quite proud of myself.  I wasn't going to weep like I did at the end of HBP... Until Dobby.  Ron took off his shoes and socks for him, for Merlin's sake! Favorite bits?  I loved when Kreacher smacked Mundungus on the head with the copper pot.  Suddenly I wanted to give little Kreacher a hug.  And when he led the Hogwarts house-elves to battle I cheered out loud.  I positively adored Molly for calling Bellatrix a bitch and then totally kicking her Voldy-loving ass.  I will worship CAPS LOCK MOLLY forevermore. Fred, Lupin, and Tonks just shocked me.  I think I've repressed the memory. Snape, though.  Damn, what a way to go.  Why am I not bothered, you ask?  No portrait in the Headmaster's office.  Maybe he survived, and I'll cling to that tenuous hope until the Harry Potter Encyclopedia gives me every bleeding detail of Snape's funeral.  I somehow believed Harry would live.  I felt similarly about Frodo.  If they died, then everything they did was for nothing.  Okay, not nothing, they did save the world after all, but I always rather hope the hero gets a nice vacation at the end of all that world saving, not a one-way ticket to the afterlife. In Harry's case, after his horrible childhood, his life is threatened...oh...on a semi-weekly basis, then what...  He dies before he's ever even known the touch of a woman?!  Okay, melodramatic, but true!  Alas, the trio survived!  And married...  And made an Albus Severus Potter, which was sweet, but kind of disturbing.  Can you imagine the look on Snape's face?  Then again, the boy's initials spell ASP, so he'll definitely be in Slytherin.  All things considered, I was very pleased with the book.  It rounded off the series nicely, answered a hell of a lot of unanswered questions, and left me wanting for just a little bit more.  So bring on the HPE!  I want pictures of the body!!

[NightScribe]

Poly;

SPOILER :

No mention of retrieving Snape's body, no funeral, no portrait in the headmasters office made me wonder, too. I don't know if it was here on in another forum where I asked if he was really dead. Sounds suspicious. I'd like to think that if he did really die, there's some sort of black marble memorial on the grounds of Hogwarts, along with his posthumous Order of Merlin, first class. I think that was a missed opportunity in the epilogue. Dumbledore's white tomb, Snape's black monument and a few words on how nothing is black and white, everything is shades of gray. Maybe a wall with the names of everyone who died at Hogwarts, like the Vietnam war memorial would have been nice also. But that's just me.

[Leonhart29]

Just in case y'all are interested in what JK thinks about her latest book - I came across this interview. It's in the spoiler box 'cause she gives a few spoilers of her own.

SPOILER :

JK interview

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

You know, I wonder how fucked Dumbledores plans would have been had Harry been sorted into Slytherin instead. Someone once started a story called 5 Minutes where that was the precise difference, and Harry became best friends with Draco, changing a lot of significant events.

Would he have simply adjusted his plans, or would he have been fucked? Given, he's a brilliant man, so he likely prepared for that eventuality, but yeah. It's weird.

SPOILER :

About the whole thing with Harry's "death," I feel cheated. It feels like a shitty cop-out to me, like, she decided she didn't want Harry's bit of darkness to be real, and that's just stupid. That hint of something sinister in him was never properly explored, and I wish it had been, especially if you're gonna go cheap in tear it off him like it was an ugly jacket. It's funny, how I used to LOVE JK Rowling's work, and how I found her to be a great writer, but now... she's just an OK writer in my mind. I feel so disillusioned, kinda like loosing my faith... again. Meh.

[NightScribe]

You know, I wonder how fucked Dumbledores plans would have been had Harry been sorted into Slytherin instead. Someone once started a story called 5 Minutes where that was the precise difference, and Harry became best friends with Draco, changing a lot of significant events.

Would he have simply adjusted his plans, or would he have been fucked? Given, he's a brilliant man, so he likely prepared for that eventuality, but yeah. It's weird.

Pix:

SPOILER :

I never considered her a great writer, but I used to admire her, for creating interesting, entertaining stories, but after DH, I loathe the woman. I feel like she not only pissed on fans, but on the entire series itself, and the craft in general. I couldn't help but get the feeling her heart was no longer in it, or that it somehow got away from her and she took the easy way out, throwing in random shit, and not bothering with other things, just to be done with it. And she has to explain what things are in interviews? I saw on another forum where someone said "you shouldn't have to explain things after the fact, the literature should explain it for you."

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

So, I finally got around to trying to read thins thing through. Fuck it, I give up. It's not happening, not without me first REWRITING THE ENTIRE THING.

SPOILER :

She used very awkward sentence structure, and there are at LEAST 3 obvious typos in the first chapter. I understand that she's writing for a younger audience then us, but come on! It doesn't mean the sentence structure and grammar need to be crap! What the hell? It's a fanfic, that's all. A fanfic written without a beta and by a person who may have a lot of great ideas, but can't write for shit.

[CrazyPedantic]

Loved the book until the epilogue and I'll be happy to tell you why:

SPOILER :I've been considering getting into some light DracoxHarry slashing since I re-read HBP again. The "possibility doors" started opening for me when Harry found himself actually starting to feel bad for Draco's current lot in life. DH also hinted a lot at Draco's redemption (along with his mother...not so sure about Lucius...he just came off as a desperate, slimy coward to me) and I was dreaming about a reconcilliation between Draco and Harry and couldn't help be think how lovely it would be if they found each other in the aftermath of the war. Call me a romantic but I'm a sap like that.

Naturally the epilogue viciously crushed that dream.

Aside from feeling a bit stung by that, it's not just shippy reasons that made me dislike the epilogue. I was more than just a little annoyed that all the epilogue was about was who hooked up with who and how many kids they had. Here I was expecting some grand coda about what happened to the Wizarding world in the wake of Voldemort's defeat and of course what everyone was up to as adults--other than spawning clone kids. </SPAN>

I agree that the epilogue was rather lacking. It truly was just about who spewed out kids. The good part was that Harry named one of his kids after Snape. Can't believe he put Albus first. I always thought that Dumbledore was manipulative and the memories and actions of the younger Dumbledore proved that.

I also agree with earlier posts that the malfoy family was turned into nothing but snivelling cowards. HBP showed Draco to be torn about his set task and he obviously wasn't a killer, then in the last book he's still trying to chase after Harry where they burnt down the room of requirement.

I thought the last two books read quite like a movie. Most of the scenes were straight to the point and read like it could just be easily transformed into a script.

that's my 2 cents worth.

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